The sports community in general and the basketball community in particular have endured a tragic summer. Three members were taken beginning with Penn State Altoona assistant men’s coach Jim Ellis on July 2, former Altoona Area High School and St. Francis player Jeff Churchill on July 27 and Lois Jubeck, wife of Bernie Jubeck, who coached at several high schools and St. Francis, a week ago. Ellis was 42. Churchill was 31. Jubeck was 54. Each died well before their time, leaving so many with heavy hearts. Tom McConnell had trouble making sense of the sad chain of events. A former fixture of the local basketball scene himself — first as head coach at St. Francis followed by a stint at the helm of Bishop Guilfoyle — McConnell was linked to all three. Ellis, who died of cancer, was his assistant at Guilfoyle. “I got to know Jim even before we coached together,” McConnell, entering his third season as an assistant women’s coach at the University of Colorado, said.